I can’t stop talking about Rachel Sennott’s new satirical comedy I Love LA — here’s why it should be top of your HBO Max watch list | Daily Reports Online
If you’re a UK resident like me and have been admiring HBO Max from afar for many years, you’re probably itching for it to launch in the UK on March 26. In my opinion, it packs the best catalog of movies and shows out of all the best streaming services.
While Sky and Now do have some HBO Originals, these services’ catalogs don’t even come close to the full suite of on-demand movies and shows available in Warner Bros. Discovery’s flagship streaming library.
Luckily, Sennott’s new comedy drama I Love LA is available to watch on Now in the UK. You can probably imagine how thrilled I was when I was finally able to stream the hit series — and just as I expected, once I finished the final episode, I was already looking for similar shows to watch.
I’d been waiting for I Love LA to drop ever since I first heard about an ‘Untitled Rachel Sennott Project’. Being a fan of Sennott in movies like Shiva Baby (2020) and Bottoms (2023), I had a feeling this was a show I’d love. As expected, she delivered a concise eight-episode season packed with absurdist humor and rogue pop culture references — hey, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
If you’re patiently waiting for HBO Max to arrive in the UK and don’t have a subscription to Now, allow me to convince you why I Love LA should be the first show you add to your watchlist.
“Gosh, it’s so nice making friends in LA”
Although she was born and raised in Connecticut, Rachel Sennott was made for the west coast, and it shows in her writing and character delivery in I Love LA.
Set in the palace where influencers, celebrities and all-round good-looking people rule the land, talent agent Maia (Sennott) is piecing together her ideal LA life. She has an apartment, cute boyfriend Dylan (Josh Hutcherson), and her close-knit circle of friends Alani (True Whitaker) and Charlie (Jordan Firstman) to lift her up during her lowest moments — but her job is what’s holding her back
For the past two years, she’s been stuck in her position as a clientless assistant at the Alyssa180 agency, run by her unappreciative boss Alyssa (Leighton Meester). She’s desperate for a promotion, and is about to lose all hope — until her ex-best friend makes a surprise comeback into her life.
After living in New York, her old college friend Tallulah (Odessa A’zion), a successful yet chaotic influencer, arrives in LA to surprise Maia on her birthday, but beneath her lavish online life Tallulah is hiding a lot of professional struggles. With Maia in need of talent, and Tallulah a reinvention, the girls rekindle their friendship and start a new life as manager and client — sparking a series of unhinged, yet emotionally-revealing events.
A quintessential Gen-Z satire written by the people it mocks
For those of you who roll your eyes at being recommended another Gen-Z show, allow me to reassure you, I Love LA isn’t a celebration of internet personalities — it satirizes them. And despite being tight with some of the internet’s most high-profile IT girls right now, Rachel Sennott isn’t afraid to take a jab at those who have welcomed her so fiercely into their circles, and she does this in so many ways.
Some of the show’s most endearing parts revolve around Maia and Tallulah’s trial and error way of trying to attain success, which results in some of the funniest moments in the show — Ritz crackers, that’s all I’ll say.
But that’s not the only way which Sennott brings the funny. By placing characters in scenes with guest stars appearing as themselves, she bridges the gap between the show’s fictional characters and the culture which it’s commenting on. Episode four is a great example of this.
All things considered, I Love LA isn’t just a black comedy. In between all the laughs, it is a story of friendship, but also the hard-hitting reality of what happens to you and those around you when you get absorbed in a world that’s so far outside what you’re already used to. The end of season one invites so many burning questions, but it’s not a bad thing at all — season two will provide the answers.
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